MIN 501. Art of Ministry. (3 h)

An introduction to vocational formation for religious leadership.

MIN 511. Practical Theologies for Social Change. (3 h)

An introduction to practical theological reflection on the skills and practices central to transformative religious leadership, including proclamation, worship, and relational care.

MIN 512. Healthy Boundaries: Ministry, Ethics, and Leadership. (1 h)

This course explores relationships between ministry, professional ethics, and pastoral leadership. Topics include clergy confidentiality, healthy clergy relationships, clergy self-care, pastoral issues related to business and finances, healthy use of social media in ministry, and practices for ensuring the safety of children and youth in ministerial programs. This course is based on a similar course developed by the Faith Trust Institute and is designed to meet denominational healthy boundaries training requirements. The professor has been certified as a healthy boundaries trainer through the Faith Trust Institute. This course is equivalent to Healthy Boundaries 101 and 201 offered by the Faith Trust Institute.

MIN 513. Introduction to Congregational Budgeting and Finance. (1 h)

This course is designed to provide ministry leaders a basic understanding of business and financial concepts in a congregational (and nonprofit) context. The overall goal is to help students learn how to use financial information in decision-making and leadership roles. The course will be praxis-oriented, aimed at helping learners develop basic skills in the areas of budgeting and related financial processes. The course will also provide an overview of effective fundraising and giving philosophies and practices.

MIN 515. Transforming Leadership? Exploring Practical Theologies for 21st Century Ministry. (3 h)

How does religious leadership transform communities? What strategies are effective in today’s ministering contexts? This course explores models of practical theological reflection and methods of reflective professional practice as frameworks for religious leadership in a variety of contexts. Students will develop reflective strategies to place into conversation their personal vocational narratives, institutional and cultural contexts, biblical leadership tropes, and elements of what they are learning across theological disciplines.

MIN 520. The Church in Contemporary Cultures. (1-3 h)

A study of social factors that pose challenges to church life. Students consider the everyday lives of churchgoers and how faith plays a role in their responses to social, cultural, and political issues. Attention is also given to the ways in which communities of faith create religious culture as a means of strength, cohesion, and survival.

MIN 530. Introduction to Christian Worship and Liturgy. (3 h)

A study of the role of symbol and ritual, sacred times and festivals, sacred places and persons, and expressions of art and music.

MIN 531. Children in Worship. (1 h)

How can worship leaders effectively encourage the participation of children in Sunday worship? What is the role of worship in shaping children's spiritual life? What is the purpose of the 'children's sermon' or 'children's worship'? This one-credit course will explore these and other topics related to the presence of children in worship.

MIN 533. Worship Practicum. (1 h)

In this course, students will learn to create, plan, and lead weekly worship services for the School of Divinity community. In addition to learning different worship and liturgical traditions, students will reflect theologically on the meaning of worship elements, thereby giving them tools to plan worship services with attention and intention.

MIN 535. The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy. (3 h)

Seminar with clergy, seminarians, Christian educators, young adult leaders and other faith-based advocates for children for spiritual renewal, networking, movement-building workshops, and continuing education about urgent needs of children at the intersection of race and poverty.

MIN 537. Intercultural Pastoral Counseling. (3 h)

This introductory course in pastoral care and counseling in the Christian tradition seeks to highlight the global significance of culture and difference in the practice of caregiving.  Students will examine a theology of care from a psycho-socio-cultural lens, drawing from the resources of narrative, family systems, and object relations theories.

MIN 538. Interfaith Care with Families. (3 h)

Introduction to the dynamics of pastoral care with families of diverse and/or blended religious traditions.

MIN 540. Specialized Internships. (0.5-3 h)

Students may elect to do summer, semester, or academic year internships away from the Divinity School's geographic region. Course credit may be given for a specialized internship if the student submits a proposal and the internship is approved by the faculty. If approved, a faculty member serves as an advisor to the student, and a reflection paper, along with other related readings, is required.

MIN 551. Introduction to Preaching. (3 h)

This course introduces the fundamentals of preaching with a goal toward developing in students the capacity for transformative proclamation. With close attention given to biblical exegesis; theology, language, imagery, design and the basics of effective delivery, this course helps students develop interpretive, theological, homiletical and practical disciplines that will inform and shape their preaching and lay the groundwork for lifelong learning and improvement. Further, this course seeks to set a foundation for a holistic and life-long approach to preaching in which you proclaim the Good News with your full self-body, mind and soul. P-BIB 521 or 541.

MIN 561. Faith, Food, and Health: Navigating the Intersections in Community. (3 h)

This course is required for students pursuing either concentration in Well-Being and Religous Leadership (Food and Faith or Faith and Health), and develops leadershp skills applicable to either congregational or not-for-profit ministries. It utilizes interdisciplinary conceptual lenses and methods to introduce participants to food systems and health systems as overalapping 'loci' for understanding brokenness and cultivating shalom in community. Student will interact with community leaders, local data, and faith-based initiatives working at these intersections.

MIN 564. Podcasts, Livestreams, and Vlogs: Proclamation in the Digital Age. (3 h)

This course investigates the many ways religious leaders are increasingly using digital media to proclaim the Gospel thus engaging with people who are not in the same space. As social media is now part of the daily lives of many people around the globe, this course explores how religious leaders engage and make meaning of their encounters on Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter and other social and digital media formats. Specifically, the course examines how preaching is re-imagined through digital pulpits i.e., podcasts, livestreams and vlogs.

MIN 565. Watershed Discipleship. (3 h)

This course will introduce and explore a new (and ancient) paradigm for ecological theology and practice that will enable and equip participants to understand and respond to the greatest crisis our civilization has ever faced - the global degradation of our planet and its waters.

MIN 570. Exploring Interfaith Practice. (3 h)

This course will provide foundational knowledge of interfaith engagement with focus on forms of leadership. The course will consist of 4 units examining: 1) interfaith history and identifying interfaith movements; 2) principles of interfaith leadership; 3) case studies in interfaith leadership; 4) special topics in interfaith practice and leadership. Students will be encouraged to identify their own leadership styles and to build relationships with effective interfaith leaders within their own communities.

MIN 577. Sacred Memory and Black Prophetic Preaching. (3 h)

This seminary graduate course delves into the transformative power of Sacred Memory as an approach to Black prophetic preaching. Through an exploration of the worldview, narratives, and ideals inherent in African American and African Diaspora cultural theologies, students will illuminate the crucial role of Africa and the African Diaspora in shaping Christian church history and herstory. Additionally, the course will investigate the significance of Africentric doxologies in amplifying the prophetic voice within these Communities. A key feature of this course is travel to St. Paul Community Baptist Church in the East New York section of Brooklyn, NY for the 30th Commemoration of the MAAFA. The term MAAFA (pronounced Mah- AH-fah) is a Kiswahili word which gives definition to the catastrophic event experienced by millions of African people during the middle passage journey from Africa bound for enslavement in the Americas. The word MAAFA is the concept of Dr. Marimba Ani, African-American scholar and author, and has been adopted in contemporary scholarship. Students will critically examine the intersections between memory, theology, and preaching, unraveling the threads that connect the historical experiences of the African American and African Diaspora communities to contemporary Christian discourse. Through an exploration of sacred memory, participants will gain insights into how these communities have preserved and transmitted their theological perspectives, resistance narratives, and spiritual resilience.

MIN 599. Multicultural Contexts for Ministry. (1-3 h)

Mulitcultural contexts for ministry courses focus on specific ministries in diverse cultural and regional contexts. Each course includes a required travel component. Course vary each year.

MIN 602A. Internship Reflection Seminar. (1.5 h)

Internship Reflection Seminar engages second-year students in theological reflection through a year-long internship. The 3-hour, two-semester course (1.5 credits in each semester) includes plenary sessions that focus on skills development. At the center of the internship learning process is a structured relationship between each student and an on-site mentor. Students also learn how to reflect theologically about ministry and leadership through work with peer groups consisting of other student interns.

MIN 602B. Internship Reflection Seminar. (1.5 h)

Internship Reflection Seminar engages second-year students in theological reflection through a year-long internship. The 3-hour, two-semester course (1.5 credits in each semester) includes plenary sessions that focus on skills development. At the center of the internship learning process is a structured relationship between each student and an on-site mentor. Students also learn how to reflect theologically about minstry and leadership through work with peer groups consisting of other student interns.

MIN 602C. Summer Internship Reflection Seminar. (3 h)

A full-time ministry internship placement (300 total hours, to be completed in 6-9 weeks of full-time internship work) during the summer.

MIN 623. The Book of Psalms: Poetry and Spirituality. (3 h)

While much of the Bible purports to be God speaking to humanity, the Book of Psalms is a record of humans speaking to God in their emotional heights and depths. The psalms are “poems of emotional turbulence,” encompassing loving hymns, heartfelt thanksgiving, sorrowful laments, and violent imprecations against one’s enemies. To learn from these insights, this class will engage in a close reading of selections from the Book of Psalms as ancient Hebrew poetry and as resources for contemporary spirituality and moral self-examination. 

MIN 625. Worship as Theology. (3 h)

Worship is a community and experience-based resource of theology. When communities worship, they perform and embody what they believe about God, Jesus, Spirit, scripture, the earth, humanity, and more. This course explores how communal and individual theologies are formed through liturgical practices. Through classroom experimentation and reflection partnered with readings from historical and contemporary sources, students will examine how theology and worship are mutually formative of religious beliefs, values, and practices. 

MIN 628. Financial Leadership in Ministry. (1 h)

This course will explore how pastoral leaders approach personal and church finances and how their approach relates to their theology. Money is a medium of social exchange that creates hope, anxiety, blessing, conflict, opportunity and temptation. Students will examine the values related to money in the communities that have shaped them; think through their beliefs about money biblically and theologically; evaluate their current money practices in light of their faith; and develop a money-related practice to pursue throughout the course. How will you organize your own finances and provide leadership within your church in addressing financial matters? In this course students will seek to answer questions like this by considering biblical and theological resources for developing a theology of finance along with developing the tools needed for personal financial planning and the management of finances in a church setting.

MIN 629. Religious Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations. (3 h)

The goal of this course is twofold: (1) to consider how legal and theological inquiry shed light on public leadership roles that theologically and legally trained professionals inhabit; and (2) to prepare students to be competent leaders of nonprofit organizations, considering issues like: the legal structure and status of a nonprofit organization (a 501(c)(3)), the process of casting a mission and vision in nonprofit organizations; fund-raising; developing and engaging a leadership board; cultivating a volunteer staff; representing an organization as a public leader; etc.

MIN 630. Christian Ministry and Public Leadership in America. (3 h)

This course explores the role of minister as public leader. It attends to four areas of concern: (1) what public leadership is, and what it means in the context of Christian ministry; (2) how U.S.-Americans make morally relevant meaning of their social and political life together, and how these meanings are relevant to ministry leadership in broader publics; (3) what models of public leadership are available to ministry leaders, and what it means to lead well through them, and (4) how ministry leaders reflect theologically on their role as public leaders. To focus our conversation around these matters, the course will examine the theme of urban poverty throughout.

MIN 631. The Ministry of Pastoral Care. (3 h)

A study of the church's ministry of caring for persons throughout the life cycle which is grounded in theological understandings of the human condition, the spiritual journey, and the nature of ministry.

MIN 633. Introduction to Pastoral Counseling. (3 h)

An introduction to theories and methods of pastoral counseling, including the nature of pastoral identity and essential skills for effective counseling.

MIN 636A. Clinical Pastoral Education I. (3 h)

A part-time ministry internship placement (2 semesters at 100 hours per semester, for a total of 200 hours) tkaen in either the second or third year of program.

MIN 636B. Clinical Pastoral Education II. (2 h)

A part-time ministry internship placement (2 semesters at 100 hours per semester, for a total of 200 hours) taken in either the second or third year of program.

MIN 638. Trauma and Resilience in the Care of Individuals and Groups. (3 h)

A study of theories and practices related to individual and community traumas, trauma-informed care, and the human capacities for resilience and growth. The course will utilize sources from multiple disciplinary lenses and practices, including neuroscience, psychology, practical theology, and restorative justice.

MIN 640. Spirituality and Community Health. (3 h)

This course explores how health equities can be cultivated at the intersections of spirituality and health. Students will consider how health systems function as loci for understanding brokenness and cultivating shalom in community. Students will also have opportunities as multi-disciplinary professional teams to imagine how to utilize course content in responding to case scenarios. By engaging course scenarios in consultation with community leaders, local data, and faith-based initiatives, students will cultivate skills as collaborative community change agents.

MIN 641. Congregational Leadership, Presbyterian Polity, and Reformed Theology. (1-3 h)

This study will enable the student to review major themes of Reformed theology and polity and explore their application to leadership and ministry in the church. It will also help prepare the student for the PCUSA ordination exams in polity, worship and the sacraments, and theological competence.

MIN 643. Homiletics, Ethics and Community Leadership. (3 h)

This course focuses on the relationship between leadership ethics, and preaching in communities of faith. Special attention is given to the roles of gender, race, ethnicity and class in homiletical practice and theology. The course also considers the role of pastoral leadership in guiding communities toward ethical decision-making that can result in justice and liberation. Also listed as THS 643.

MIN 644. Preaching, Worship, and the Care of Souls: Funerals, Weddings, and Other Pastoral Rites. (3 h)

A study of pastoral rites. This course is a seminar and practicum through which students learn how to design and lead pastoral rites, with an emphasis on funerals and weddings. Each student is required to preach for the class a funeral sermon and a wedding sermon.

MIN 645. Preaching in the Tradition of the African American Church. (3 h)

This course invites students to explore the heart and soul of the African American preaching traditions with attention to the historical emergence of the Black Church, its dual function as a religious and socio-political institution, and the theologies, practices and histories that continually give shape to its preaching traditions. The course is designed to enhance students’ ability to create theologically grounded sermons that are intelligible, accessible and transformational by exploring the Black Preaching tradition’s contributions to homiletical theory and practice. Course emphases include the theological dimensions of preaching, biblical interpretation, sermon preparation and delivery, preaching as formative practice, and preaching as a communal communicative act.

MIN 654. Preaching and Worship in Sacred Time. (1-3 h)

This course analyzes the biblical, theological, and pastoral nature of the seasons and special moments of the church year. In addition to instruction on sermon preparation for the major liturgical moments (e.g., Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost), attention is given to baptism, communion, weddings, and funerals.

MIN 658. Womanist Proclamation. (3 h)

This course explores womanist proclamation, a practice of truth telling, wisdom bearing and justice seeking that is identified via the radical inclusion of marginalized voices, as an embodied rhetorical and theological act of resistance. Through the carving out of sacred spaces, the course will examine how Black women and girls use speech (performed word) and movement (embodied word) to intentionally disrupt popular terrains where Black bodies are literally and metaphorically disembodied. Ultimately, the course theorizes that womanist proclamation is a means through which Black women's bodies generate and transmit spiritual power from traditional and alternative pulpits and sources to unfetter themselves and their communities from the vestiges of interlaced oppressive systems.

MIN 659. Preaching at the Intersections. (3 h)

Faithful preaching pays deep attention to the contextual realities of preachers, biblical texts, listeners, and the world in which we live. This course will invite students to consider how contextual realities require an intersectional homiletic. We will pay special attention to marginalization and how 'preaching at the intersections' can uplift, empower, convict, and transform. Students will evaluate understandings of culture context, and identity, then begin to construct, homiletic theories and practices as we consider topics including (but not limited to) race, gender, sexual identity, class, disability, race/racism, ethnicity, age, and ecological disaster.

MIN 660. Sacraments and Ordinances: History, Theologies, and Practices. (3 h)

A place-based exploration of the history, theologies, and practices of baptism and the Lords' Supper in diverse Christain contexts.

MIN 663. Ritual and Congregational Life. (3 h)

An examination of the history, theology, and practice of the sacraments and other pastoral rites in congregational life. Attention is given to the meaning and function of ritual in a contemporary context. The course is taught from a Reformed perspective.

MIN 668. The Prophetic Pulpit: Preacher as Public Intellectual. (3 h)

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the intellectual tradition of preaching as both spiritual witness and prophetic resistance in the United States. The ultimate aim is to foster intellectual dispositions, ethical orientations, and personal motivations which enable us to raise voices of dissent against any status quo and/or ideological options offered by popular society. We will thus seek to fulfill the three following interrelated tasks: 1.) Clarify the role of the public intellectual within a prophetic tradition, 2.) Examine historical examples of those who bore witness to horrors otherwise denied and their methods of public address, and 3.) Encourage students to craft creative sermons, write clear, concise, and compelling editorials, and engage pressing social issues in ways that are ethically based, intellectually sound, and emotionally animating.

MIN 671. Contemporary Spiritual Writers. (3 h)

A study of the principles of the spiritual life as presented in the works of selected contemporary writers.

MIN 681. American Denominationalism. (3 h)

A study of the development of denominationalism in America with particular attention to specific faith communities and the shape of religious organizations for the future.

MIN 682. A History of the Baptists. (3 h)

A study of Baptist history with particular attention to Baptists in the U.S. and the diversity of Baptist ways of belief and practice. Also listed as HIS 682.

MIN 693. History and Polity of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ. (2 h)

The course will explore the history, polity, theological foundation, and characteristic beliefs of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ.

MIN 695. United Church of Christ Polity and History. (2 h)

The course will explore the history, polity, theological foundation, and characteristic beliefs of the United Church of Christ.

MIN 705. Integrative Capstone. (3 h)

The third-year capstone course explores two interrelated themes, which deepen students’ vocational formation. First, students conceptualize their vocational journey through a job search process, develop a resume, practice interview skills, and plan for financial well-being over the course of their careers. Second, students create a comprehensive portrait of themselves as religious leaders through exercises inviting cumulative and integrative theological reflection on their learning in the Master of Divinity program. Students anticipate lives of leadership and service after Wake Forest through a retrospective consideration of their development as ministry leaders during their time as members of the School of Divinity community. In these ways, the capstone course reinforces the centrality of discernment in the life and work of ministry.

MIN 706. Directed Reflection in Applied Sustainability. (1 h)

This one credit course is taken concurrently with the two credit practicum in Applied Sustainability. With a divinity faculty mentor, students engage in directed theological reflection on practicum experience.

MIN 725. Spirituality and Community Health. (3 h)

This course explores how health equities can be cultivated at the intersections of spirituality and health. Students will consider how health systems function as loci for understanding brokenness and cultivating shalom in community. Students will also have opportunities as multi-disciplinary professional teams to imagine how to utilize course content in responding to case scenarios. By engaging course scenarios in consultation with community leaders, local data, and faith-based initiatives, students will cultivate skills as collaborative community change agents. 

MIN 740. Theological Reflection as Praxis. (3 h)

This course explores approaches to theological reflection on ministry practice from discipline-specific points of view. This version of the course introduces students to frameworks and perspectives of biblical interpretation from multiple cultural perspectives, particularly those of women from various social locations, nationalities, socio-economic classes, and faith commitments. Students learn skills for interacting with textual frameworks that are not their own. The course equips students to interpret their own ministry contexts with an awareness of their social and cultural location and in light of the interpretive possibilities that other social and cultural locations open up.

MIN 750. Analyzing Communities and Contexts. (3 h)

The primary objective of this course is to prepare Doctor of Ministry students to be skillful analysts and interpreters of their ministry contexts. Frames and methods of context analysis from a variety of disciplinary perspectives are introduced, including sociological, ethnographic, cultural, and historical approaches. Students will design a research paradigm for the Doctor of Ministry project and complete initial data gathering and analysis.

MIN 760. Transformational Religious Leadership. (3 h)

What is religious leadership? How does it transform communities? A core question for our times anchors the course: What motivates ministers to adopt transformational leadership strategies, especially when faced with resistance?  For religious leaders, the first question necessitates a second one: How does hope function within this resistance? In other words, how does it sustain leaders, shape strategies, and prevent burnout?  Several conversation partners will join us as we wrestle with these questions. The course will utilize readings, practical exercises, and case studies to explore reflective leadership strategies and encourage peer-supported leadership formation. Students will explore a variety of leadership challenges and opportunities, including: The role of theological and biblical models of leadership in how religious leaders shape and are shaped by sacred texts, traditions, and communal contexts.  The relationship between power, resistance, and hope in religious leadership by integrating insights from liberation theology, prophetic imagination, and contemporary leadership theories. How theological and practical frameworks sustain transformative leadership in the face of resistance, burnout, and social opposition.  Theological models and practices that foster spiritual resilience and community empowerment.

MIN 770. DMin Project Seminar/Proposal. (3 h)

Working with a faculty advisor in a structured independent study format, students hone the thesis and structure of their Doctor of Ministry project, create an annotated bibliography that serves as the basis of the literature review section of the project and write and present a project proposal approved by their advisor and the Director of the Doctor of Ministry program.

MIN 771. Classics of Christian Devotion. (3 h)

A study of the principles of the spiritual life presented in the enduring classics of devotion.

MIN 780. DMin Project Seminar/Presentation. (3 h)

Working with a faculty advisor in a structured independent study format, students complete, revise, submit, and present their Doctor of Ministry project.

MIN 790. Topics Courses. (1-3 h)

Courses in ministerial studies can be developed and offered on a one-time basis using this designation.

MIN 790A. Topics in Ministerial Studies. (1-3 h)

MIN 790B. Topics in Ministerial Studies. (1-3 h)

MIN 790C. Topics in Ministerial Studies. (1-3 h)

MIN 790D. Topics in Ministerial Studies. (1-3 h)

MIN 790E. Topics in Ministerial Studies. (1-3 h)

MIN 790F. Topics in Ministerial Studies. (1-3 h)

MIN 790G. Topics in Ministerial Studies. (1-3 h)

MIN 790H. Topics in Ministerial Studies. (1-3 h)